Fifteen joys of marriage

“Fifteen joys of marriage” (“Les Quinze Joies de Mariage”, between the 1380s and 1410s)-a French satirical treatise that reflected the contradictions of the late European Middle Ages. Parodying in the title of the famous prayer “Fifteen Joy of the Mother of God”, the author of the work (hiding his name in the sharades unsolved to this day) continues the persistent tradition of antifeminist works. Its origins go back to antiquity, the medieval East, a number of genres of Latin -speaking literature in Europe. On French grounds, such motives were clearly manifested in the works of the Roman about Rosa, “Mateolus’s complaints”, and especially in the genre of Fablio - a poetic satirical novel, describing female insidiousness, luminity, grumpiness, etc. P> “Fifteen joys of marriage,” undoubtedly take this trend, but noticeably transform it: this is not a direct invective to the weaker sex, but a collection of funny stories about the tricks of insidious wives and their gullible husbands. The author conducts a reader in all circles of family hell, trying not to miss a single possible situation, not a single “type” of family relations - he will accept the life of a medieval European city. The condemnation of female weaknesses is often inferior to surprised admiration for the tricky tricks and resourcefulness of women. In this dispute of the replacing friend of the negation and statement, the transition of the essay, which lurks the harbinger of a new, revival concept of man, is found.